Senior Scottish Conservatives are planning an “improved version” of controversial proposals to split from the UK party.
Murdo Fraser, the party’s economy spokesman at Holyrood, is considering entering the contest to replace Douglas Ross as the Tory leader north of the border.
He advocated splitting the parties in 2011, when he lost a leadership election to Ruth Davidson — later Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links — arguing that a distinct centre-right party would be more successful in Scotland without being associated with the UK Conservative brand.
A source sympathetic to Fraser said that Rishi Sunak’s disastrous election campaign had harmed the Scottish campaign. The Tories kept five of their six seats in Scotland but crashed to less than 13 per cent of the popular vote, a result that would almost wipe them out if replicated in the 2026 Holyrood election. Several MSPs have said that the Scottish party must create a dividing line with its UK counterpart.
A source said that Fraser’s campaign “looks like Murdo 2.0 but an improved version of the separate party”.
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Liz Smith, a veteran Scottish Tory MSP who backed Fraser’s previous leadership bid, agreed that there was a “very strong case for a centre-right Conservative Party in Scotland with its own principles and its own identity”.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “We have suffered from the various problems at Westminster, not least a perception of a lack of integrity and trust. A lot of voters believed the party down south had not behaved well. So a separate party has to be part of the mix.
“Times have moved on and there is still validity to Murdo’s call. Everybody recognises it was his brainchild.”
Russell Findlay, the Tory justice spokesman, is considering running for the leadership. Craig Hoy, the party chairman, Liam Kerr, its education spokesman, Meghan Gallacher, the deputy leader, and the prominent backbenchers Jamie Greene and Maurice Golden are also seen as potential candidates.
Greene said this week that the party was in danger of “political extinction” if a “continuity” candidate were imposed. Golden has rejected suggestions of a split from the UK party but said he was open to “a distancing or a perceived further distancing” from London in an effort to win over voters.
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The party’s Scottish management board is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the process for the leadership contest.
A Holyrood source said that Fraser would be “the instant favourite”, adding: “It’s not a surprise he is likely to run after all the leaks and briefing that have gone on lately.”
There have been calls for the leadership election to run for months to allow an in-depth debate on the party’s future.
Stephen Kerr, another backbencher, said that Ross should step down immediately to make way for an interim leader while the Scottish Tories debated how the party should respond to the “incredibly poor” number of votes won at the election.
Kerr, who is not thought to be planning to stand for the leadership, joined a chorus of MSPs urging the party to ditch its core message of opposing independence and instead focus on making a centre-right pitch with a “visionary leader”.
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“In the Holyrood election in 2026 we should campaign on economic growth, lower taxes, public service reform and a return to law and order,” Kerr wrote in The Daily Telegraph. “A large proportion of Scots are conservative-minded and the party in Scotland has to respond to their desire to vote for a conservative agenda.”
